Kettle for melting gums



STATES ArENr KETTLE FOR MELTING GUMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 463,828, dated November24, 1891.

Application filed October 25, 1890. $erial No. 369,337. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: ,7

Be it known that I, DAVID T. CROOKETT, a citizen of theUnitedStates,residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State ofConnecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inKettles for Melting Gums; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention has for its object to provide a kettle for melting gu mswhich shall prevent the serious waste of pure gum that has beenunavoidable with-the kettles heretofore in use. With this end in viewIhave devised the novel kettle of which the following description, inconnection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, numeralsbeing used todenote the several parts.

Figure l is an elevation of my novel kettle in place upon a truck, aportion of the cover, rim, and flange being broken away; Fig. 2, adetail sectional view on the line 00 :r in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is asimilar view illustrating the construction of the kettles for meltinggums now in common use.

My invention is adapted to all the various uses in the arts where it isrequired to melt gums, and is especially adapted for use in themanufacture of varnish.

1 denotes the kettle, and 2 a cover therefor, having the usual pipe 3 atthe center for the escape of gases, and stirring-holes 4 on oppositesides thereof. In treating the ordinary gums of commerce a heat of from500 to 800 Fahrenheit is required to reduce them to liquid form. Indoing this gases are liberated from the gums and quite a percentage ofthe oils of the gums is volatilized. I preferably use in practice aconvex cover, which acts to condense upon its inner side a largeproportion of the volatilized matter. A great deal of volatilizedmatter, however, escapesthrough the central pipe for gases and throughthe stirring-holes and is condensed upon the outer side of the cover,and a very much larger quantity of pure gum is forced over the edge ofthe kettle under the cover and has heretofore been allowed to run downthe outer side of the kettle, and so has been wholly wasted, in additionto which there is constant danger that the escaping gum will take fire.It has therefore been necessary to watch the kettle constantly and towipe off the gum which ran down the outer side with burlaps. This hasmade the operation of melting gums quite expensive, as the kettlerequired constant watching and all the matter that boiled over or thatcondensed upon the outer side of the cover was wasted. In order toprevent the volatilized gum which condensed upon the outer side of thecover from running down the outside of the kettle, the covers to thekettles were made with channels around their outer edges, as shown inFig. 3. This prevented the condensed gum from running down the outsideof the kettle, but did not save any of it, for the reason that thesegums cannot be remelted when they have once been allowed to-harden. Thepractice has been, therefore,

- to let the condensed gum accumulate upon the cover until it became soheavy as to be inconvenient to handle, when it was dug out with chiselsand thrown away, so that all of this gum was lost in addition to thatwhich ran down the outside of the kettle. At the present time the gumsused in the manufacture of varnish range from thirteen to seventy centsa pound, a fair average beingv twentyfive cents a pound. A hundredpounds of gum, costing approximately twenty-live dollars, is expected toproduce seven and onehalf gallons of liquid gum.

It has been demonstrated by actual experiment that the loss of gum whenmelted in the ordinary kettles amounts to a full half-gallon for everyhundred pounds melted. My invention saves all the gum that boils overthe edge of the kettle and all that condenses upon the outside of thecover, thereby keeping the outside of the kettle and cover clean, doingaway with the necessity for closely watching the kettle during theoperation of melting, and saving a full half-gallon of pure melted gumfor everyhundred pounds of crude gums melted. In order to accomplishthis result, I place outside of the rim of the kettle near the top ametallic trough 5. This trough is preferably made substantially U-shaped, as shown at the right in Fig. 1, the inner side being carried uphigher than the outer side and being inclosed by a strong metallic band6, the rim of the kettle being then turned over outward and bentdownward again outside of the band, as is clearly shown in Fig. 2. Ashas already been stated melted gum that has escaped from the kettle mustgo to waste unless it is saved while in a liquid condition. In order toaccomplish this result, I make the bottom of the trough highest at oneor two, preferably two, points, from which points it inclines downwardslightlyin both directions. At the lowest points I form openings 8 intothe kettle. (See Fig. 2, also dotted lines in Fig. 1.) The cover, asalready stated, is made convex, and is provided with a rim 9, justfitting within the rim of the kettle. The outer edge of the coverextends outward far enough so that the gum which conlenses upon theoutside of the cover will drop into the trough and pass into the kettleat openings 8. It will thus be seen that by the use of my novel kettlewaste is practically prevented. The gases and acids of the gum which arevaporized pass off through the central pipe and the stirring-holes; butall the gum that boils over the rim of the kettle and over the top ofthe stirring-holes and the central pipe and all the vaporized gum thatcondenses upon the outside of the cover passes back into the kettle atopenings 8.

10 denotes a truck of suitable construction, by which the kettles aremoved about in use, and ll a stirrer, by which the gums are agiratedduring the process of melting.

Having thus described my invention, I clain1- A kettle provided at itstop with an exterior trough, the bottom of which is made highest atcertain points and inclines downward in both directionsto other pointsat which openings are made into the kettle, combined with a convex ordownwardly and outwardly inclined cover having a pipe for the escape ofgases, and a flange fitting within the rim of the kettle, the peripheryor outer rim of said cover extending beyond the kettle, but being withinthe outercircumference of said trough, whereby material which condenseson the outside of the said cover will be received by said trough andwill be drained back into the kettle, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I alfix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DAVID '1. CROCKE'I" \Vitnesses:

A. M. Woosrnn, ARLEY I. MUNsoN.

